Welcome to Asset Allocator, FT Specialist's newsletter for wealth managers, fund selectors and DFMs.
Forwarded this email? Sign up here.
The Asset Allocator podcast
Something different for today’s newsletter – the first ever Asset Allocator podcast. Every fortnight we’ll be joined by a leading fund buyer to discuss some of the pressing issues in UK fund selection, from asset allocation and portfolio construction to the latest industry news and views.
The first episode can be accessed here. In it, we look back over the past six (and a bit) months since the vaccine announcements of November 2020, and ask – with the benefit of hindsight – whether that moment can be seen as a turning point for fund selectors.
Our discussion chews over the value versus growth debate, and, more broadly, the idea of using thematic funds in portfolios – whether in isolated cases or part a core/satellite approach. Many wealth managers are now going down this route, but this week’s guest - Barclays investment manager Stephen Peters - warns it’s an “incredibly difficult thing to do”.
In our second segment, we take a look at Mark Barnett’s return to fund management with Tellworth Investments and ponder his chances of a successful comeback.
In the final section we discuss sustainable UK equity funds, and the challenges they face given the make-up of UK equity benchmarks. We touched on this issue in relation to income funds yesterday – but it’s not just an dividend issue.
Click here to listen to the podcast. We’ll be back with our second episode in two weeks’ time, on Thursday 11 June. And keep your eyes peeled for our new data-focused edition of the regular Asset Allocator newsletter, drawing on insights from our proprietary databases – that will be arriving in your inboxes later next month.
